


Frantic

by MorganaNK



Category: Inspector Lynley - All Media Types, Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 05:31:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9804626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganaNK/pseuds/MorganaNK
Summary: An insight into Tommy's thoughts and feelings when he is searching for Barbara and Leo Luxford in the episode "In the Presence of the Enemy"





	

**Author's Note:**

> Property of Elizabeth George and the BBC, no copyright infringement intended
> 
> All spoken lines are taken verbatim from the DVD subtitles

I push the Jensen as hard as I dare. I have to get to Barbara.

“Look, Sergeant Havers is with the suspect, I’m on my way. Get on to the local force. I want some backup out there.”

I don’t care if I sound panicked to Helen, or if my actions confuse her, all that matters is Barbara. If Helen were to ask me what was going on I wouldn’t be able to explain, I didn’t really understand it myself, I just knew that where Barbara was, that was where I needed to be.

Minutes or hours could have passed before my phone rang, I had lost track of time. As I listen to the voice on the other end my temper breaks.

“You’re telling me they’re how far away? I don’t want excuses. Look, just get a patrol car to DC Payne’s house now.”

I move the Jensen into the fast lane, coaxing more speed out of the already straining engine and cursing under my breath that I am so far away.

I stop onto the gravel driveway outside DC Payne’s house. Helen has been trying to raise Barbara while I have been coordinating the search.

“I still can’t get through to her.”

I get out of the car, a uniformed officer stepping up to stand beside me.

“Good evening Sir. No answer from the house, Sir.”

“How long have you tried?”

“Ever since we got here.”

Helen has now joined us. I look around, but have already made the decision to force entry.

“Stay back.”

I hit the pane of glass in the door with my elbow. It takes a couple of attempts, but finally the glass gives way. I run up the stairs two at a time, Helen on my heels.

“Hello? Hello?” There is no response to my calls.

I look in a room and see a woman, who I assume to be Mrs Payne, tucked up in a double bed; she appears to be asleep.

“Helen.”

She brushes past me and approaches the bed, while I look down at the bedside table.

“Valium.” The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place.

Helen sits on the bed, “Mrs Payne, we need to talk to you.” She gently shakes her shoulders, trying to wake her. “We’re the police. Where’s your son, Mrs Payne?”

The woman in question opens her eyes sleepily, “Robbie? So good to me, my little man.”

My anxiety is increasing, and with it my temper.

“Mrs Payne? Oh she’s completely out of it. I’ll take a look around.”

I join a uniformed officer on the landing and gesture towards a closed door.

“You look in there.”

I move along to the next room, which turns out to be Robin’s room, and start to search, hitting pay dirt when I discover a scrapbook on the top of a wardrobe. Flicking through it, I hurry back to Mrs Payne’s room.

“Mrs Payne?”

I sit on the bed and try again, showing her a page in the scrapbook.

“Mrs Payne? Who is this?”

She still seems to be out of it. I hold the page closer.

“Is this Robin’s father?”

Still no reaction. I am trying not to explode, but it is becoming more and more difficult to keep a lid on the fury boiling inside of me.

“You have to tell me. A boy’s life is at stake.”

Finally, I get a reaction.

“I don’t know. Could be. I was very popular. The boys liked me a lot, especially the posh boys. Then I got pregnant with Robbie. And he kept asking me ‘who’s my dad?’ Never stopped asking me. I thought it was very nice for Robbie to think his dad was someone really big, someone successful.”

I move to where Helen is standing at the end of the bed.

“Will you stay with her?”

“Yeah. Where are you going?”

I can’t explain, and I don’t want to. I decide to be deliberately vague, hoping that she will accept it.

“I don’t know. I can’t just sit around and wait.”

I hurry down the stairs, issuing orders as I go.

“All right, I want every man you’ve got out there, searching.”

Once I am back in the car I can let my emotions run free. I am frantic, and I know that I won’t rest until I see for myself that Barbara is okay. Leo Luxford is now almost an afterthought.

I slow the Jensen as I approach a bend in the road, only to be suddenly blinded by the headlights of a car speeding in the opposite direction. Realisation dawns as the car, Barbara’s car, sideswipes the Jensen, removing its wing mirror. I stamp on the brakes and haul on the handbrake as the Maestro swerves up the road, its tyres screeching.

I get out and run towards the Maestro, my heart pounding, terrified at what I might find. The driver’s door opens and Barbara almost falls out of it, breathing heavily, tears pooling in her eyes. My eyes devour her; she looks bruised and scared, but there is also relief. I see Leo Luxford sitting in the back of the car, and turn my gaze back to Barbara, leaning on the roof of her car, staring at her with a mixture of pride and disbelief.

~*~

I undertake the interview with Robin Payne, playing with him like a cat tormenting a mouse, reeling him in. What he has done to those children sickens me, but I have to play the game.

“Now Barbara. She thought she was on for a moment, didn’t she?”

My gaze narrows, my anger returning with a vengeance. My eyes flick towards the two-way mirror where I know that Barbara is standing on the other side, and then back down at the table. Gritting my teeth and counting to five in my head, I look Robin in the face, my expression one of pure hatred. Robin appears oblivious to the change in my mood, glancing over his shoulder at the two-way mirror, grinning maliciously, before returning his attention to me.

“She even tried to tell me that Luxford didn’t know I existed.” 

He smiles, as if he and I are sharing a secret. My expression becomes harder still.

“She was right. He didn’t. In fact, according to your mum, he was one of any number of men who could have been your father.”

As Robin’s face falls I feel a wave of satisfaction wash over me. The news that his mother had lied to him had knocked the cocky bastard down a peg or two, but it would never make up for what he had done to Barbara.

I leave the interview room and sigh deeply, shrugging on my jacket. I need to find Barbara, she has been distant since I found her. I need to know that she is okay.

I round the corner as Barbara comes through the double doors. She looks down at the floor, refusing to meet my eye, but I can see that she is still tired and tearful.

“Are you sure that you don’t want the doctor to check you?”

She won’t look at me, shaking her head and trying to walk away. I become more concerned, and catch her arm. The action stops her in her tracks, but her gaze remains fixed on the floor.

“You did good today. It really will be tea with the Queen next.”

She briefly looks at me, before lowering her eyes to my chest.

“Yeah, well… if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not.”

I can almost see her putting up the barriers between us, so I try to make a joke.

“Well, she’ll be disappointed.”

Her eyes creep upwards, “yeah, well, I’ve got friends of me own.”

The barricades are still there, growing higher by the second. She turns and walks away from me, but I can’t leave it like that and so I follow her, leaning casually against the door frame, a smile on my lips.

“The interrupted date?” I know that I am prying but I can't help myself.

And there is that look again; through a chink in her defences I see confusion, embarrassment, and more than a little pain. As quickly as it was there it disappears and she laughs, half-heartedly.

“Yeah.”

We share a final look and then she’s gone. Her behaviour has me worried, concerned and puzzled all at the same time. She is under my skin and in my heart, and yet she keeps pushing me away. Shaking my head to try and clear my mind, I push away from the doorway and go to find Helen.


End file.
